Friendship Centre Gives Out Bursaries

The Native Trust Bursary began in the early 1970’s by two professional men and their wives in Grande Prairie. The group noticed that Native people had a lower level of education and no real support to get one. They began pooling their funds and set up a bursary program. From there, they began regular monthly contributions to the account and asked the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre to select the recipients annually. Since then, the men have retired but they have accumulated enough funds for this bursary program to continue long after they are gone.

This bursary is a true gift of selflessness and hope. These men and their wives have helped many people for over 40 years and will continue to support them for many years to come. They had a dream and shared it generously. The only condition that they have ever enforced is that they never be publicly recognized and that no one, not even the Grande Prairie Friendship Centre Board of Directors, know who they are.

This year there were 3 recipients. Marcus Savard is a 17 year old student at Beaverlodge High School. It is very rare for a high school student to be selected for this award, and we are pleased that Marcus has applied to the Heavy Equipment Technician program at GPRC Fairview. Ronnie LaPierre is a first year Business Administration student, currently studying at GPRC. The third recipient, Colette Auger, is currently taking Open Studies here at GPRC. Congratulations to all the recipients and good luck with your future studies!

~submitted in part by Kelly Benning

In The Spirit of Giving!

GPRC's IT department donated 4 laptops to the Grande Prairie Youth Emergency shelter and 3 laptops to Odyssey House this week. These were due to be sent to e-recycling but thanks to Jordan Pickup and Jason Rakestraw approving the time necessary Robert Janes and Phil Gorman were able to install windows and several necessary applications that will assist their users with job hunting, on-line education, and general research and office tasks. ~ submitted by Phil Gorman

Peace Country Idol Pays It Forward

For another year the Marketing Strategies class has organized the Peace Country Idol, and once again it was an overwhelming success! The students are very excited to help support numerous projects in Southern Ethiopia, and on December 10th, they presented Swan City Rotary Club members Cedrick LeBlanc (President) and Chris Andersen, with a cheque for $7,619. Since 2007, this event has raised a total of $73,705.97! Way to go!!

Santa Visits GPRC Fairview!

Fairview Campus Library held their annual Christmas Tea on Tuesday, December 3rd. Despite the snow and cold Santa managed to make his appearance to the delight of students and staff. An estimated 130 people came by the library to share the Christmas spirit. A total of $76.00 was collected for the Fairview Student’s Food Bank. ~ submitted by Monica Macdonald

Stuff It! Student Services

Sheila Moerkoert, Carla Basarab, Christine Gurlitz, Katie McKeon

The GPRC Financial Aid Team prepared Christmas Hampers for 30 students in need this holiday season as part of the Room of Plenty Program. Each hamper contains all of the fixings for a traditional Christmas Dinner complete with a gift card to purchase a turkey/ham. The GPRC community came together again this year and generously donated enough board games to include one with each Christmas Hamper. IGA very kindly gave us a 25% discount on all grocery items we purchased to build the hampers. As a new addition this year, 60 children will receive teddy bears from Winmar Property Restoration Specialists. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the GPRC community, IGA, and Winmar Property Restoration Specialists for helping make this hamper program a success for our students. ~ submitted by Carla Basarab

Casual Fridays Make a Difference

This semester the Office Administration instructors and Staff decided to have "Jean Fridays", but in order to wear jeans you had to kick in a toonie for the Room of Plenty. The results have been tallied and over $120 was raised this semester for the Christmas Hampers! The challenge is now being put out to other departments, to encourage them to join in next semester. Perhaps a little competition...? ~ submitted by Ray Savage

Christmas Parade In Fairview

GPRC Fairview Campus joined in the Santa Claus Parade on November 29 in Fairview. We entered the Freightliner with riders from the HET program and Dean Chris Laue as well as a horse and wagon with lots of the AHT instructors and students, followed by AHT students leading dogs from the Grande Prairie SPCA program. A good time was had by all!

~ submitted by Patricia Woronuk

Community Box Art

On November 7th, GPRC Fine Arts Department hosted "Student for a Day", where high school students were brought into classes to participate as if they were a student in that class. This event coincided with Instructor Lycia Trouton's class project, entitled Community Box, where students took discarded boxes from the Library and turned them into pieces of art. There are many artistic nuances behind this project, but the main idea is that when stacked together, the individual pieces become one larger piece, in this case, a brick wall. As we know, the brick wall is significant to GPRC and this project was inspired by Cardinal's brown, bricklaying technique from the early 1970s. One student, Calculus Datingaling, received a response from the award-winning Douglas J. Cardinal and has since framed his email!

The potential of the Community Box project to spread across campus and into the community is huge. It is mobile, low-cost, individual/independent, something a “non-artist” can achieve in a relatively short period of time – without even having to “knit or crochet!”…just cut up and collage paper… use scissors and perhaps hang something inside with a wooden skewer or thread.

That is one of the hallmarks of community art: diversity!

~ submitted by Lycia Trouton

Hospitality Students Show Their Stuff!

On December 9, the Hospitality and Tourism students hosted a Student Showcase and Christmas Social with the first year students displaying their menu and tourism projects. The second year students prepared and decorated for the event. Guests included community members, friends and staff. Many thanks are given to Carmen Gorgichuk and her Fine Arts students who provided the beautiful piano accompaniment. ~ submitted by Carolyn Vasileiou

Mighty Peace Day Recognitions

GPRC and Wolves Athletics recognized the outstanding success of Mighty Peace Day held October 1st. The Organizing Committee was recognized for their amazing efforts, to make this idea come to reality in a very short 5 month period of time. The 4 Advocates, who inspired the event, were also recognized for bringing their dream to Grande Prairie and working to make it happen. They were made Honorary Wolves and presented with a Certificate and a personalized Wolves jersey. The parents of the Advocates were thanked and presented with flowers. Don Gnatiuk, President and CEO, made the presentations with assistance from the GPRC Wolves Women’s Basketball Team. ~ submitted by François Fournier

Science Open House

GPRC's Science Open House was held at the Grande Prairie campus today, and saw approximately 450 students arrive from various high schools across the North. The day began with a keynote speaker in the Douglas J. Cardinal Theatre, followed by presentations given in all areas of the Science program. The young students really seemed to take it in and enjoy themselves. The campus tours visited different areas like the Fitness Centre and Gym, Library, Friendship Centre, Recording Studio, Residence, etc. and many thanks extended to the tour guides who volunteered their time to take the students around; Les Rawluk, Darlene MacDonald, Cindy Nychka, Madison Warnock, Megan Ryan-Walsh, Jean Reston, and Paula McGregor. Thank you to all who helped make this day a success!

Second Class of Commercial Beekeepers

The Commercial Beekeeping program has produced its second graduating class, since the program was reinstated. They finished up their session with pure beeswax candle making, coffee and sweets along with congratulations from Chris Laue, Susan Bansgrove, Bruce Rutley, and Patricia Woronuk. Best of luck to the graduates!

Wolves Players On The National Radar!

Congratulations to GPRC Wolves Basketball forward, Jordan Teo for scoring his way to the top of the rankings. The mid season Basketball stats are out, and with 22.36 points per game average, Teo is ranked the eighth best scorer in the nation, and the best individual scorer in the ACAC.

Congratulations to GPRC Wolves Basketball guard, Kelly O’Hallahan for a standout first semester with the Wolves. At mid season, O’Hallahan sits in the top 5 in four major statistical categories, which is a very rare and notable feat. Kelly is currently second in the ACAC in scoring, and seventh in the CCAA, with 18.46 points per game, while at the same time being amongst the leaders in steals and assists per game. Most impressive of all of her achievements, O’Hallahan leads the league in rebounding, averaging 12.09 per game as a 5’9 guard, in a category that is often dominated by much taller post players. Kelly’s strong play has the Wolves heading into the break with a strong 8-3 overall record.

Excellence In People

At each monthly Board of Governors meeting, staff and faculty recognitions are presented to the Board by Don Gnatiuk on behalf of the Executive Team.

• Congratulations to GPRC Board of Governors member Stewart Wilson who has been appointed as a Director of the Board of Travel Alberta effective January 1, 2014 by an order in council through the department of Transportation! Well done Stewart!

• Thank you to the GPRC Internal United Way Campaign Committee. This year’s campaign raised just over $9,900. To the volunteers, and the donors, thank you for your continuing support of this worthwhile community initiative.

• Thank you to the Employees Association Social Committee and friends for all their time and effort in organizing another fun Christmas party. Your hard work is truly appreciated! Thanks to Paula McGregor, Theresa Skea, Janessa Allan, Brenda Lindquist, Darcie Coulter, Meghan Nofthall, Hazel Liley, and Shawnna McClelland and all the other helpers. Also thanks to the MC, Tina Stasbourg. And finally, a big thank you to the nursing students for providing the safe drive home service!